Profit Margin
21.1%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Finance and Insurance ·NAICS 5242
NAICS 5242 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities - Industry Benchmarks
$87,892/yr average annual pay, with 5,059 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5242.
- 21.1%
- Net margin
- 1.3M
- Workers employed
- $87,892/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.4B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5242
Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities runs a 21.1% pre-tax net margin - well above the national average - across 148K establishments employing 1.3M workers.
- 21.1%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.3M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $87,892/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.4B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities
Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities sits inside Finance and Insurance at a 21.1% net margin (well above the national average), $71.9B in aggregate receipts across 332,435 returns, averaging $216.1M per establishment.
147,902 establishments employ 1,310,504 workers (8.9/location) at $87,892/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Total Receipts
$71.9B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$15.1B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,310,504
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$87,892/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
147,902
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 11,764; establishment count decreased by 2,480. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities revenue goes
Workforce scale
Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities margin vs national reference points
Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities net margin 70.3%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
16,078 returns 5%
Margin: 9.8% · Receipts: $41.2B
Sole Proprietorship
316,357 returns 95%
Margin: 36.3% · Receipts: $30.6B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 332,435
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $216.1M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $115.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 8.9
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Insurance Agencies and Brokerages NAICS 52421 | N/A |
| Other Insurance Related Activities NAICS 52429 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 130,160 |
| California | 120,022 |
| Florida | 112,567 |
| Illinois | 99,557 |
| New York | 76,940 |
| Pennsylvania | 52,317 |
| Ohio | 42,714 |
| Georgia | 41,187 |
| North Carolina | 34,982 |
| Michigan | 33,910 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
5,059
Total Loan Volume
$2.4B
Avg Loan Size
$475K
Jobs Supported
27,661
Program Breakdown
7(a) 4,533 (90%)
504 526 (10%)
Top SBA Lender
Live Oak Banking Company
385 loans in this industry
New Business Share
17.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 761
2021 937
2022 755
2023 656
2024 828
2025 1,008
2026 114
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities?
$71.9B in total annual receipts across all Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities businesses. Average per business: $216.1M.
How profitable is Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities?
21.1% net profit margin, well above the national average.
How many businesses are in Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities?
147,902 business establishments. Together they employ 1,310,504 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities?
$87,892/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 8.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities employment?
Texas leads with 130,160 workers. California (120,022) and Florida (112,567) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities receive?
Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities businesses received 5,059 SBA loans totaling $2.4 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $475K. These loans supported 27,661 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities reports a higher net margin than 96% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 92% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
- Legal Services 20.3%
- Tobacco Manufacturing 19.6%
- Other Financial Investment Activities 18.5%
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services 1,297,995
- Automobile Dealers 1,293,388
- Outpatient Care Centers 1,345,946
Benchmarking Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities
- Net margin: 21.1% vs sector. Browse Finance and Insurance
- 147,902 establishments, 1,310,504 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 5,059 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 5242 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.